More Minus Than Plus in Jobs
Instead of focussing on employment, the Modi government has wasted eight years working on social and political factors to divide the people, thus resulting in "a divided India" that is suffering economically, writes P Chidambaram. In a column in The Indian Express, he brings attention to the thousands of jobs for sanctioned posts in the government that have been lying vacant for years.
"After the new government took office, all talk ceased about creating 2 crore jobs a year or crediting every Indian’s bank account with Rs 15 lakh. The people were unusually forgiving! The government got busy in refurbishing and re-naming the UPA schemes and claiming them to be its own. The MGNREGA scheme that provided ‘last resort’ jobs to the poor – that was lampooned by Mr Modi – was retained because the government could not invent an alternative scheme."P Chidambaram in The Indian Express
Bring Out the Bulldozers?
In a comment on the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh, Tavleen Singh writes in The Indian Express that a government that is lawless and unjust, inevitably loses the authority to impose the law. A government with an iota of compassion does not order the demolition of homes even when they belong to criminals because punishing whole families is not justice but brutality, she opined.
"There are not enough JCBs in India available to tear down the homes of the thousands who rioted last week. Using bulldozers to enforce the law anyway is a primitive idea of justice that gained currency once Bulldozer Baba won a second term. On behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government, Harish Salve argued in the Supreme Court that all demolitions were carried out only after due process and proper notices were sent. As one of India’s most compelling lawyers, he persuaded the court not to put an end to bulldozer justice. The court merely said that demolitions should not be done with revenge as a motive."Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express
Inside Track: Suspect Choice
Coomi Kapoor in a column in The Indian Express writes about how BJP’s surprise decision to field Ghanshyam Lodhi, and not Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as its candidate for the Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls is part of a secret understanding with former Rampur MP Azam Khan. She also writes about how National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was successful in mollifying the feelings of Iranians upset over Nupur Sharma’s verbal missile.
"During the Iranian Foreign Minister’s recent visit to India, Doval reportedly assured the minister that “anyone who speaks like this will be taught a lesson’’. While the Iranians reported the former police officer’s remark approvingly, the NSA neither confirmed nor denied the conversation. The MEA did not divulge details of the meeting but contradicted reports that any threat had been made to Nupur by pointing out that Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had removed the purported remark from its official website. But the statement remains on the Iranian official news agency website."Coomi Kapoor in The Indian Express
Despotic Democracy
Drawing parallels to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Ramachandra Guha writes in The Telegraph that the two are quite similar with their authoritarian and despotic tendencies as they work with loyal and often pliant bureaucrats and suppress press freedom.
"Our country’s economic promise will not be redeemed, our social harmony will not be enabled, our national security will not be assured by having a single Superman running the Government of India from New Delhi. That an authoritarian prime minister is complemented by so many authoritarian chief ministers further imperils our prospects as a nation. India, as well as Indians, will be far better served by leaders who can listen and learn – both from domain experts and from the citizenry at large – who can delegate authority to their ministers (and accord credit to them when that is due), who can respect the autonomy of public institutions and the freedom of the press, who can forego name-calling in favour of a constructive dialogue with the political Opposition."Ramachandra Guha in The Telegraph
If You Can Lean In, You Can Lean Out Too
Why is it that when Microsoft's Bill Gates, Twitter's Jack Dorsey stepped down from their positions, the people didn't question their decision but Facebook's 'tech goddess' Sheryl Sandberg wasn't treated the same way, asks Rinku Ghosh. Slamming those who accused her of betraying the feminist cause by trading her hard-won position for personal comfort, Ghosh writes in a column in The Telegraph that one needs to give credit for her work and also consider that Sandberg might have felt choked by the toxicity of the workspace.
"In a moment, Sandberg was seen as trivialising the criticality of her mission. And by foregoing her role-model position, she was seen as supreme traitor to the cause and reinforcing stereotypes of women not having it in them to go the whole hog. In an instant, people had turned her change-making moment into one of abandonment. Some even bad-mouthed her “Lean In” initiative as just a glossy handout of what male techpreneurs were already doing, seizing the leadership of a digital world that was completely wired out of real issues."Rinku Ghosh in The Telegraph
Stamp of Affection
After visiting a philatelic exhibition dedicated to BR Ambedkar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi felt that the unseating of ‘old-style post’ by emails has caused a massive loss. In a column in The Telegraph, he opines that while laptop correspondence is beneficial in terms of speed of dispatch, saving of precious paper, spell-checking and data augmentation, hand-written communications are immortal and personalised.
"Had these amazing human beings emailed me instead of writing ‘proper’ letters, their minds’ signals would have been absorbed by me, even ‘saved’ in a manner of speaking, but not with the ageing immediacy, the fraying magnetism, the dimming audacity, of their written word. I find the way they have addressed the envelopes saying something about them. The use of a ‘Mr’ or ‘Shri’, the latter sometimes with and sometimes without the ‘h’, the addition of ‘extra’ instructions on the envelope’s top left like ‘Personal’, ‘Confidential’, ’Urgent’, ‘To Be Opened by The Addressee’, give the letter the character and feel of a spoken word, a hand’s gesture or a finger’s message. One can begin an email with ‘Dear so-and-so’ exactly as one might begin a hand-written letter. But the way ‘Dear’ is written and, even more so, the strokes in the concluding ‘Yours…’ are impossible to capture in the cold tappity-tap of a keyboard."Gopalkrishna Gandhi in The Telegraph
Why Ukraine Doesn’t Figure in Our Classroom
With reports of instances of violence, assault, rape, death, and looting of civilian property coming in from Ukraine, is India and its educational system equipped to handle the conversations, the trauma, and the process of healing, question Samira Verma and Abraar Ahmed. In a column in The Indian Express, they write that education needs to impart sensitivity and wisdom to students to help recover from such senseless tragedies.
"If the conventional education system is failing, I believe that artists – visual and performing – need to shoulder the responsibility and shake the complacency of the general populace. However, the artists are also a neglected community. More often than not, they lack even the essential resources to bring about the necessary social change to which they have selflessly devoted their lives. Hence, artists need to join hands with philanthropists and take up bold initiatives that will get the immediate attention of decision makers."Samira Verma and Abraar Ahmed in The Indian Express
Younger Brother Is Watching
Upala Sen comments on the newly unveiled mascot of the 44th Chess Olympiad that will be hosted in Chennai in her column in The Telegraph. She opines that the chess knight called 'Thambi', meaning younger brother speaks for Chief Minister MK Stalin and not for the game of chess. The underlying meaning is that this refers to Stalin, who is the youngest among his brothers and the mascot could be a show of victory for completing a year as chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
"Stalin’s stars are ascendant. There is much talk about his “Dravidian model”, his “national ambitions” and DMK allies are all praise for his ‘mature’ politics. In the meantime, India is getting ready to host the first Chess Olympiad. Get ready to see some grand moves."Upala Sen in The Telegraph
Marry Yourself First
In a column in in The Times of India, Pooja Bedi urges people to not feel guilty while spending time for one's mental health. Divorces are becoming increasingly common because people are releasing themselves from patterns and belief systems since compromises should never be made at the brutal cost of losing your identity, she writes.
"The most empowering and positive relationships are those where you operate from strength, self-love and self-respect. In order to have a healthy and happy marriage you need to marry yourself before you marry anyone else. Commit to loving, growing, appreciating and nurturing every aspect of you. Only if you truly love yourself will you recognise and resonate with someone who loves you, for you."Pooja Bedi in The Times of India
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